Ice season
The earth was shaking, stars were falling, and mountains were collapsing. Chu Li saw black flying insects. Delirium. She stood at the entrance of the Ark. The experience on the Ark was certainly an illusion, and what happened before entering the Ark could not be said to be real.
Chu Li gave a sarcastic smile: "My mother once described the scene of the end of the world. Thirteen years later, I am so lucky... to see it in person."
The tremors subsided, and Chu Li saw Chen Mengzhou. There was no surprise on Chen Mengzhou's face. Earthquakes were common, and Chu Li might not have experienced one, but after an earthquake... judging by the date, the ice season would arrive after this earthquake.
"Ice Season..." Chu Li murmured softly, "I know. Mother told me."
"Let's go. To the safe house."
Chen Mengzhou and Chu Li were currently located in the suburbs of H City. The safe house Chen Mengzhou was referring to was, of course, her home. Jinxiu Muyuan, in the heart of H City. So, the question arose. The journey home was long. How could they reach the safe house before the ice season arrived?
"Look at me," Chen Mengzhou said softly. Chu Li looked into her eyes, his expression becoming dazed for a moment. Behind them, the ruins silently reorganized, returning to the appearance of H City.
"Walk forward, there is a bus stop." Chen Mengzhou was not in a hurry. She walked slowly and Chu Li followed her.
"Chu Li, have you heard of the Spirit Realm?"
Chen Mengzhou's pace was still slow, but her speech speed was getting faster and faster, as if she wanted to convey as much information as possible in a limited time.
"I said, listen first."
The Spirit Realm...is a modified version of "Utopia," but its rules remain largely unchanged: the Law of Naming, the Law of Attraction, and the Law of Rationalization.
The Naming Rule. This is the first rule, and its scope is the broadest. On a geometric level, it refers to a spiderweb-like relationship centered on the Realm Master. Each time a "Visitor" dies, a new branch appears, and the Visitor's Spiritual Realm splits. One half represents the afterlife, merging into the Realm Master's spiritual realm; the other half represents the spiritual realm he still inhabits.
The law of attraction states that you attract what you focus on. This is self-explanatory.
The law of rationalization means that your thoughts will be rationalized according to the thoughts of the realm master. For example, the Ark just now is Shen Hua's Yanling Realm. So he is still alive there.
We're currently in the Origin Spirit Realm, but something's gone wrong. Chen Hua, having predicted the catastrophe, forcibly triggered the explosion and seized the opportunity to shift the "world" to the "Spirit Realm." While his actions have drawn widespread criticism, they were legitimate under the principle of emergency avoidance. Unfortunately, Chen Hua couldn't live with it. So, he secretly simulated the consequences of the catastrophe. After his death, this world merged with the Origin Spirit Realm. Hence the mutant creatures and the "apocalyptic" setting.
Shen Hua certainly hopes to solve this problem.
The bus arrived, number 444. Chen Mengzhou boarded with familiarity, and Chu Li followed. Chen Mengzhou symbolically inserted two banknotes. The driver was a skeleton, and the other passengers were also skeletons. But the two didn't care.
In Shen Hua's simulated world, the solution requires him to be alive. So, in the Evolving Spirit Realm, he's alive. I didn't allow the simulation to continue. Because at its end, Shen Hua would realize that the catastrophe he predicted was actually his own fault. He would then self-immolate in the laboratory. This, reflected in the Originating Spirit Realm, would usher in the scorching season.
Did I mention the Law of Rationalization? If Chen Hua were still alive, he would still be the Master of the Origin Spirit Realm. He wouldn't need to genetically engineer the next Master, and I wouldn't appear, nor would I enter the Ark, and his solution wouldn't work. Therefore, according to the Law of Rationalization, this solution itself is irrational. Yet the Ark still exists. This is because he paused the Ark at a certain point in time, then repeatedly reversed it, and this time cycle is approximately thirteen years.
The Source Spirit Realm has incorporated too much of Shen Hua's thinking, so even though I'm the new realm master, I'm being rejected everywhere. We've arrived.
The two of them got out of the car and walked along the pristine white streets. They were the old streets of H City. Chen Mengzhou opened the iron gate and entered the residential complex. The buildings were still in good condition, and the elevator was working. Chen Mengzhou pressed the fifth floor key. She dug out a spare key from under the carpet and opened the door. Chu Li followed.
This is a place you can call "home".
"Let's eat first." Chen Mengzhou entered the kitchen, and the ingredients were all kept intact. Chu Li listened to the sound of frying in the kitchen, and a mixture of emotions suddenly filled his mind.
Chen Mengzhou brought out a plate of disgusting, worm-like white mushrooms.
"Eat it. This is the dish your mother made when she first invited me to dinner."
Chu Li looked out the window and saw a layer of white frost on the street.
"Just stay here during the ice season, okay?"
Chu Li said "OK" softly, and then Chen Mengzhou disappeared.
“…If Shen Hua were still alive, I wouldn’t show up.”
Chu Li turned around and slowly started eating the plate of white mushrooms.
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